Voucher codes in affiliate marketing worldwide

November 26, 2010

Everyone loves to be at the top of the food chain, and no one more than affiliates. As we’re still working with a last-click wins methodology for most campaigns, it’s all about being the final touch point or else it won’t really matter. And voucher codes sits at the very top.

Since the recession hit the world there’s been a natural increase in effort by consumers of saving money followed by coverage by media on the topic. This has made it prime time for affiliate voucher code sites.

While you might be familiar with this trend in the US and UK with sites such as myvouchercodes.co.uk and offers.com (which is now entering the UK market), this trend is just as strong in many other markets. In Scandinavia there’s rabattkod365.se and others, and in France there’s for example ma-reduc.com. Having a quick look at the Google Trends search data for local voucher codes searches, we can also see that there’s lots of interest to be capitalised in many parts of the world.

Google Trends chart of Google.fr searches of "code promo"

As mentioned earlier, voucher codes are positioned at the end of the sales funnel. While there is plenty debate about voucher code sites adding value in other ways than just pushing someone over the tipping point to make a sale, it’s a firm fact that from an affiliates point of view – this is the main objective.

By reviewing many of the existing voucher code sites it’s apparent to me that many are heavily reliant on search engine traffic. The nature of the sites do however lend them well for social, and we’re seeing some great followings of voucher sites on Facebook and Twitter, which is great.

The risk of being heavily reliant on search engine traffic is of course very real. If we’re taking a closer look at some of these sites it’s apparent to me that in Google’s eyes some might simply be viewed as bridge pages with little added value than simply an outbound link.

As always, the most innovative and determined affiliates will build out these sites to become proper brands in their own right (as some are well on their way of doing), and have a great future.

Welcome. These are my thoughts on digital marketing in general, and search, social and affiliate in particular. It does not represent the views of my employer. I hope you enjoy and invite to connect with me.